The round-four win, which has the team sitting just outside the top six with two wins and two losses, came with a 54-53 scoreline as Rochester came from behind in a see-sawing match at Deakin Reserve.
It was almost a carbon copy of last season’s round-18 meeting between the two clubs when the match finished in a 52-all draw.
Rochester won its opening-round match with 11th-ranked Kyabram by eight, then lost by 14 to reigning premier Seymour and suffered a three-goal defeat against Echuca.
The Tigerettes’ next fortnight is a rather testing one, facing up against top-of-the-ladder and unbeaten Tatura, before tackling the other A-grade unbeaten team Mooroopna in round six.
Tatura is the big improver of the competition, having finished 11th last season with a 2-16 win/loss record.
Rochester has lowly ranked Mansfield and Benalla in the following weeks before facing third-ranked Euroa, which will mean after nine weeks of the season it will have faced all four of the 12-club competition’s top-ranked teams.
Shepparton, which had won two of its first three games before the weekend, is ranked one rung above the Tigerettes in sixth place after four rounds.
It finished sixth last year, but was bundled out in the first week of the finals.
A 12-goal final term from state Under-19 representative Teal Hocking, working in tandem with Annie Hughes, saw the Tigerettes overcome a three-goal three-quarter time deficit to win by a solitary goal.
Shepparton led by one goal at quarter time, despite Hocking shooting 11 first-quarter goals to give her team a five-goal lead midway through the quarter.
Shepparton fought back and led at the first change before a 17-10 second term in favour of the Tigerettes gave them a six-goal half-time advantage.
Hocking moved from goal shooter to attack in the second term and shot a further 13 goals before the Tigers were ambushed in the third term and outscored 17-8 — giving Shepparton the three-goal advantage.
Hocking finished with 41 of Rochy’s 54 goals, while Ava Cottam continued her great form and Ella Roulston’s “hard and fast” work at centre was a feature.
Roulston was the team’s best four-quarter mid-court player, while Holt worked with Rasmussen at the defensive end to restrict their quality opposition to 11 final-term goals.
Morgan Dingwall, who started at goal attack with three first-quarter goals, spent two quarters on the bench before coming onto wing attack in the last term with fresh legs.
She provided a spark with her vision ion the centre third and fed the ball to Annie Hughes, who finished the match with 10 goals.
